Already a member?

Drywall Demand Boosts Continental Building Products

Whether it's called drywall, sheetrock or wallboard, new
buildings need lots of it.

These gypsum-based panels are the most common building blocks
used for interior walls and ceilings.

And now that the housing market is rebounding -- storms and
other obstacles aside -- demand for the material is on the
upswing.

Home remodeling and commercial construction also show budding
signs of life, adding to the good news for the half-dozen or so
U.S. wallboard manufacturers.

Among them is a fairly new name in wallboard,Continental
Building Products (
CBPX
).

But Continental is no stranger to sheetrock. Its assets had
long been part of the North American wallboard division of
France-based multinational cement and concrete giant Lafarge.

As part of ongoing asset sales, Lafarge sold the gypsum assets
to private equity fund Lone Star for $700 million. The deal
closed August 30.

Lone Star took Continental public Feb. 5, retaining more than
70% of the outstanding shares. The stock is up 24% from an IPO
price of $14, though 16% off its March 10 high.

Reston, Va.-based Continental makes wallboard from synthetic
gypsum as opposed to natural gypsum, a mineral that has become
scarce in the U.S., and virtually non-existent in the eastern
U.S.

Synthetic gypsum makes use of a by-product of coal-fired power
plants. Quality is considered equally as good as the mined
mineral.

Markets For Materials

Continental sells wallboard to distributors, buying groups,
wholesalers, mass merchants and other retailers, mostly in the
Eastern U.S. and Canada.Lowe's (
LOW
) is its top customer, accounting for 15% of sales, according to
RBC Capital Markets.

Continental says it has 17% market share east of the
Mississippi.

USG (
USG
) and National Gypsum have the largest share. Other rivals are
the more diversified Georgia-Pacific andEagle Materials (
EXP
).

Continental is a pure-play in wallboard, one of the top-three
players in several markets.

Its assets had been well-cared for by Lafarge, which spent
more than $500 million to modernize plants, mainly wallboard
operations in Silver Grove, Ky., Palatka, Fla., and Buchanan,
N.Y. Those investments plus cost-control measures in the downturn
made them among the most efficient and low-cost in the industry,
observers say.

Because of those investments, "capital needs are low," said
analyst John Kasprzak of BB&T Capital Markets. And as the
housing market continues to recover, he added, Continental should
generate "meaningful free cash flow."

"There is still substantial improvement to come just to get
back to long-term historical averages for housing production"
Kasprzak said.

RBC Capital Markets forecasts housing starts will rise from
927,000 in 2013 to 1.2 million in 2016. In the last few years
they had fallen as low as 554,000, in 2009.

Meanwhile, drywall-needy commercial construction is starting
to pick up. In a company filing, Continental said the sector
should grow at a compound annual rate of 17% from 2013 to
2016.

The National Association of Home Builders' Remodeling Market
Index notched a relatively strong level of 57 in the fourth
quarter, same as the third quarter, the highest reading since the
first quarter of 2004. An index score above 50 shows that more
remodelers report market activity is higher than lower, based on
current projects and future indicators.

RBC Capital Markets expects Continental's wallboard volumes to
rise 10% a year through 2016. Deutsche Bank analysts think the
firm will realize an 8.5% price increase in 2014, 5% in 2015 and
6% in 2016. Price rises should taper off, the analysts wrote,
"given that prices were up 27% in 2012 and 17% in 2013."

Volume and prices fell off especially hard between 2008 and
2011, amid the economic downturn and sluggish construction after
the housing market crash.

Growth Outlook

In Continental's latest reported quarter, the fourth quarter
of 2013, adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes,
depreciation and amortization) more than doubled from a year
earlier to $29.8 million. Net income rose 125% to $6.7 million,
or 21 cents per share.

"The company's cost structure is such that over 50% of
incremental revenue flows through to EBITDA," Deutsche Bank
analyst Nishu Sood said in a March research note.

Overall sales in the quarter grew 30% to $114.4 million.
Volume was up 18% to 632 million square feet and net prices up
14% to $143 per thousand square feet. Net income for the full
year rose to $4.9 million compared with a net loss of $68.7
million in 2012 on a pro-forma basis, Continental reported.

In the financial release put out on March 27, CEO Ike Preston
said the firm was well positioned to "leverage existing capacity
and low-cost production" to realize added profits and cash
generation "over time."

Preston previously was Lafarge's co-president and president of
the gypsum division.

Continental said in the release that weather conditions in the
Eastern U.S. would adversely impact wallboard volume in the first
quarter. Even so, it expects net sales and adjusted operating
cash flow to increase in 2014, though it didn't say by how
much.

Company executives declined to comment further for this
article.

In a poll by Thomson Reuters, analysts expect a
17-cent-per-share loss in the first quarter but 69 cents in
profit for the full year. Earnings next year are expected to rise
107% to $1.43 a share. Analysts expect revenue to climb 17% in
2014 to $469 million and 16% in 2015.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.

Please note that once you make your selection, it will apply to all future visits to NASDAQ.com.
If, at any time, you are interested in reverting to our default settings, please select Default Setting above.

If you have any questions or encounter any issues in changing your default settings, please email isfeedback@nasdaq.com.

Please confirm your selection:

You have selected to change your default setting for the Quote Search. This will now be your default target page;
unless you change your configuration again, or you delete your
cookies. Are you sure you want to change your settings?